RIM's latest BlackBerry dares to be different, and that's a good thing. The Torch 9800 has both a capacitive touch screen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. There's a new OS to go with that multi-touch display and it brings the BlackBerry into the 21st century. It's intuitive, enjoyable and quite powerful, yet veteran BlackBerry users won't find it unfamiliar. The Torch has a new Webkit web browser, a 3.2" display, the usual excellent hardware keyboard, push email galore and a heap of multimedia. Other amenities include a 5 megapixel camera, 4 gigs of storage, a GPS, WiFi and Bluetooth. The Torch is certainly good enough to keep Berry addicts loyal, but is it enough fight off Android and iOS?

Wow, that's an excellent review. Thank you. You are the second positive review about 9899 that I have read. The first is Crackberry, and I thought they might be bias. But, after reading your review, I think it is a good device. I wonder why the rest of reviewers give 9800 not so positive reviews. You said it is made out of plastic. I don't know if 9700 has a metal of it, but the "metal" look on 9700 makes it look like a real metal (compare to 8900). Does 9800 looks like 8900 or 9700? I know you mention that you bought Samsung recently. My question is if you are going to get 9800 too? I am curious. If you do, then it tells me 9800 is really that good ;-) Thank you Lisa.

The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is made of plastic too. Then again, so is the Samsung Vibrant and most of the Captivate. We live in a plastic world when it comes to tech. I'd say the Torch certainly looks as good as the 9700 and more like the 9700 than the Curve 8900.

I think the first round reviewers like Giz and Engadget were a bit biased toward the large touch screen slate phones in the iPhone/iPhone competitor family of devices. Those are very in right now, and they certainly have their merits. I obviously think it's better to look at the BlackBerry in a different light, as a business phone that can handle fun stuff too. As far as I know, not everyone wants an iPhone kind of device just yet .

I did indeed purchase a 9800. I carry several phones, but none are as good at calls, reception and messaging as the Berry. When it comes to downtime, the Captivate is still a lot of fun.